My biggest muse and nemesis has always proven to be the SR-71 Blackbird. Without a doubt the most difficult and testy RC jet to fly on the market. I literally went through 10 of them because of my stupidity and stubbornness. The hand launch crash at the beginning of the video is a perfect illustration or microcosm of my experience with that plane. At 1:38, what you are seeing is my complete and utter relief after having successfully maidened that dang beautiful and difficult bird. I didn't know I was being filmed so the reaction was genuine.

My biggest muse and nemesis has always proven to be the SR-71 Blackbird. Without a doubt the most difficult and testy RC jet to fly on the market. I literally went through 10 of them because of my stupidity and stubbornness. The hand launch crash at the beginning of the video is a perfect illustration or microcosm of my experience with that plane. At 1:38, what you are seeing is my complete and utter relief after having successfully maidened that dang beautiful and difficult bird. I didn't know I was being filmed so the reaction was genuine.

Hooray for my buddy Todd. He finally flew it right to the ground. I only know that from reading about the test flights of the real thing. They have a very small lift value which allows them to go fast as hell but almost impossible to fly slow. The pilots all said you have to run power right to "ground effects" before cutting power and letting it fall the rest of the way. I'm guessing ground effects for a RC model would be about 3"

Did the one you planted in the tree grow?

Makes me shake my head at the video of the guy that catches his RC plane in a hot air balloon, and fly it in really restrictive places at high speeds.

Indeed Les, unlike most planes the Blackbird cannot be slowed without disastrous results. I learned to fly her with constant down elevator to keep the nose from ballooning skyward on final. You are absolutely correct. A successful landing sequence involves flying her right to the ground keeping that nose down and speed up. It took me a few airframes to find the sweet spot where I didn't fly her so violently into the ground she wouldn't bust apart. But once you have her dialed in, the rewards are fantastic. I've owned a lot of cool planes but nothing garnered the respect and awe the Habu did in the air.

When I edit, upload and publish my videos, there's no option for me to select "Allow mobile users to view video". If there were I would select it. YouTube is cool to publish videos but they sure have some stupid stipulations.